Haider Ackermann sits in an odd place somewhere between being unknown and established. Known for the way he drapes fabrics that cuts close to the body to a few insiders, Ackermann's work can be likened to the way people consistently buy Margiela or Rick Owens. However this season, he literally waved at us with an embellished hand. Added to the body conscious draping and the cropped leather jackets, a flurry of oversized tassels at the waist and metalwork and chainmail hanging down the chest gave way to a different kind of Ackermann collection.

Dazed Digital: From last season's draped dresses you added more embellishment with the tassels and the metalwork - how did that come about?
Haider Ackermann: It's a woman coming from nowhere, she's carrying all her treasures with her, all her memories and stories. It's very vague. She might have been in India, here, there and everywhere. It's all those things put together to make one thing.

DD: Were there any literal references?
HA: You don't think that far with it. I just play with it. It's a laboratorium and you just want to do your own thing.

DD: Did you purposely go for a visually stronger collection this season?
HA: What you see in the show is an illusion and you're creating a fantasy dreamy world and there's a story there. What's happening behind the scenes, in the showroom, you have the more commercial pieces like the t-shirt, the jogging bottoms and so it's different.

Backstage photography by Vito Flammino.